Irish workers should not fear the impact of outsourcing to India because it provides an opportunity for "local labour to move up the value chain", according to a leading Indian technology lawyer.
Vineet Subrami, who advises a number of leading Indian technology firms, says the Republic now has the potential to benefit from Indian technology firms investing here.
"A lot of Indian firms are now looking at opportunities in the Republic because they want to be close to their customers," said Mr Subrami. "They want to be close to their customers and Ireland provides a base close to the UK which is a huge market for Indian companies."
Mr Subrami was in the Republic this week as a guest of Matheson Ormsby Prentice and gave a series of talks to the law firm's clients on doing business in India.
Anne-Marie Bohan, a partner in Matheson Ormsby Prentice, says that while Irish firms have not availed of Indian outsourcing to the same degree as their UK counterparts, there is likely to be an upsurge in the practice in the coming years.
She points out that many smaller Irish technology firms are already using coding factories in India but are not publicising the fact.
"For Ireland outsourcing presents a risk and an opportunity but it is going to get more commonplace," said Ms Bohan.
Since 1999 the information technology sector in India has been growing 30 per cent year on year, and now accounts for more than 4.8 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.
Mr Subrami credits the growth of the sector to the quality of its education system for both technology and management, and says the local outsourcing industry has matured significantly. The Indian government has also created a legal environment that facilitates the technology industry and the export of both software and services.
He says it is no longer simply taking technology jobs from high-cost locations and moving them off-shore. Indian outsourcing giant Infosys Technolgies is now "one of the largest employers of US people in the US", says Mr Subrami.
He advises Irish firms considering outsourcing to complete a comprehensive "internal due diligence" to ensure the function in question can be effectively taken on by an external service provider. Mr Subrami says that contracts that fail do so because this step has not been conducted rigorously. The service provider should also be able to provide comprehensive technical and financial qualifications as well as a detailed transition map which will outline how they intend to handle the transition.
"If the transition map is vague you will know that they have no experience with that process," says Mr Subrami.
